1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



179 



off the small shallow hive. Pray why 

 do you sell them, is it because they 

 won't winter and you want them to 

 die on someone else' hands? Then 

 you see that it is a poor solution of 

 the winter problem because your api- 

 ary doubles itself every year and 

 only one half of which you are willing 

 to take the risk of bringing through 

 the next winter yourself. I have done 

 considerable experimenting on out 

 door wintering myself and have tried 

 different so-called winter hives and 

 packing and dead air spaces and I 

 nearly always had to face the facts in 

 the spring that my bees didn't winter 

 as those that were kept in box hives 

 in the same neighborhood. After 

 studying the matter over carefully I 

 came to the conclusion that to winter 

 as safely in the frame hive as the box 

 we must bring the conditions that the 

 colony wintered under in box hive 

 and apply it to the frame hive as 

 nearly as possible. Now it a general- 

 ly conceded fact that bees will stand 

 almost any degree of cold if well pro- 

 visioned and kept dry. Reasoning 

 thus I put half my colonies in the 

 dovetailed hives in '93 and the only 

 preparations I made was to see that 

 they had plenty honey and put two 

 empty supers or one empty hive body 

 on top and an extra heavy cushion of 

 chaff on the top of the frames. Leav- 

 ing the outer-walls of single thickness 

 entirely unprotected. The theory of 

 the work was this, the air inside the 

 bee hive becomes saturated with mois- 

 ture which condenses whenever and 

 wherever it comes in contact with cold 

 of a sufficient degree. Now the out- 

 er-walls being thin are easily penetrat- 

 ed by frost and cold and as the warm 

 air in the hive comes in contact with 



the frosty outer-walls the moisture is 

 attracted and condensed and runs 

 down and out leaving the cluster dry. 

 The heavy packing over the top pre- 

 vents the cold from penetrating 

 through to the top of the cluster con- 

 sequently no moisture is condensed 

 over the bees. The same law that 

 attracts and condenses the moisture 

 of a warm room on the thin frosty 

 window pane attracts and condenses 

 on the the thin outer-wall of the bee 

 hive. After trying this experiment 

 in the winter of '93 I was perfectly 

 satisfied with it and last winter I work- 

 ed it on all my hives and must say 

 that my wintering by this plan has 

 been perfect, and when I say perfect 

 I mean that 100 per cent of my colon- 

 ies came through the winter bright, 

 healthy and strong and ready for bus- 

 iness. Now the advantages of the 

 single walled hive for wintering are 

 these. First it condenses the moisture 

 where it will not effect the colony. 

 Second it warms up more quickly 

 when the sun shines but a short time 

 and the colony will often have a flight 

 while those in thick walled hives will 

 remain in-active, in fact I have seen 

 that very thing myself. Third on 

 account of warming quickly by the 

 sun they offer more frequent opportun- 

 ities for changing the position of the 

 cluster and for carrying honey from 

 the outer combs to the center. Fourth 

 they are much cheaper than those 

 hives built specialy for wintering and 

 come nearer bringing the conditions 

 of box hive which all must admit is 

 excelled by none. 

 Franklin, Pa. 



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